Monday 15 September 2008 04.58 EDT
First published on Monday 15 September 2008 04.58 EDT

Forget announcing your latest album with a gigantic, budget-crippling open-air concert - Oasis have been hiring street musicians to do the heavy promo work for them. A gaggle of buskers and street performers were collected on Friday to perform new Oasis songs at various sites around Manhattan. The ragtag group included violinists, guitarists, and – we can only hope – some of those human statues covered in gold spray paint.

From subway platforms to park clearings, they played across the five boroughs – even in the pouring rain.

Thoth and Dominic Del Principe were some of those who got rained on. The violin and acoustic guitar duo played songs from Dig Out Your Soul before a small knot of Oasis fans and a few homeless people, the NME reported. "I think they appreciated all the different musicians playing their songs and putting different perspectives on them," Del Principe said.

Earlier in the day, the Mancunians expressed their admiration for the bells and shells Thoth had tied to his ankles. "They said, 'We should do that, then we wouldn't have to worry about having a drummer anymore!'" Thoth boasted.

Though Liam Gallagher said he was going to come out and see the duo play, he didn't ever show – probably, Thoth said, because of the rain. Gallagher will, however, be able to see the footage in a film being made by music video directors Brendan and Emmett Malloy.

Despite their having left the groups to toil in the rain, the buskers had nothing but good things to say about the Gallaghers. "We met Noel and Liam this morning at a warehouse in Brooklyn and they really seemed to dig us," Del Principe said. "I've heard a lot of rumours about how they are but they were very affable and even said they wanted to take us on tour with them."

All they have to do is figure out how to get it to rain inside the arena.